Staffing new Iowa prisons may be “impossible,” union president warns

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) — The number of inmates at Iowa’s prisons is expected to surge in the coming years, but prison workers don’t know if they’re ready for the challenge.

Gov. Kim Reynolds signed Iowa’s habitual offender law June 2, a measure expected to cause the number of inmates in Iowa prisons to surge.

Under the new law, a person is considered a habitual offender once they are convicted of their third felony. Their mandatory minimum sentence would be doubled, as well as increasing their maximum sentence.

To counter the expected increase, the state is planning to build three new prisons.

Todd Copley, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the union that represents Iowa’s prison workers, said the state cannot staff the facilities it already has.

“The Department of Corrections can’t staff the prisons that we have, let alone build three more where it would be impossible to staff those,” Copley said.

The nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency predicts the number of inmates behind bars at Iowa prisons will surge by nearly 50 percent in three years.

The LSA says Iowa’s prison system has more than 230 vacant positions, more than half of those being for correctional officers. Iowa prisons are already over capacity by 27 percent across the state.

Staffing issues are at the center of a lawsuit against the Iowa Department of Corrections after a guard and nurse were murdered by inmates at the Anamosa State Penitentiary in 2021. The suit says poor staffing contributed to their deaths.

“I talk frequently with a lot of the correctional officers and, you know, what happened with the murders at Anamosa is devastating. It’s so unfortunate,” Copley said.

Copley said the staffing shortage is dangerous for both staff and inmates.

“Believe it or not, somebody has loved ones somewhere in the prison system in Iowa. We have to look after those individuals as well,” he said.

Copley said the state has to do more to help those doing dangerous work.

“You can work at McDonald’s for $20 an hour and not worry about getting stabbed, beaten or having urine thrown on you for that matter,” he said.

The LSA estimates it will cost nearly $2 billion to build the new prisons.